Government Employees

News about Government Employees, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 20, 2015

News Analysis; some Midwestern states are rolling back collective bargaining rights for government workers, including pensions and health coverage, but excluding police and firefighters; labor experts say exemptions have no substantive merit, as other public workers have much more dangerous jobs. MORE

Feb. 26, 2015

Gail Collins Op-Ed column examines failure of New Jersey Gov Chris Christie's signature pension reform project; argues that without reform to tout, Christie's chances for the Republican presidential nomination have all but evaporated; criticizes Christie's hypocrisy in relation to New Jersey's public workers. MORE

Feb. 25, 2015

New Jersey Gov Chris Christie, in his budget speech, pushes 'bipartisan solution' for public employee pension deficits that resembles plan he signed in 2011 to 'fix' problem; pension system continues to haunt him, with Democrats, who control Legislature, accusing him of bad faith. MORE

Feb. 19, 2015

Illinois Gov Bruce Rauner proposes over $6 billion in cuts in state spending and asks for steeply reduced pension benefits for state workers; cuts will probably face rigorous opposition in Democratic-controlled legislature. MORE

Feb. 5, 2015

Illinois Gov Bruce Rauner, in his first State of the State address, says state should not allow some political contributions by public employee unions, and should permit local 'right to work' laws; says state should reward government employees for their work rather than length of service; Republican governor's attempt to limit labor's clout in Democratic-controlled legislature will be problematical. MORE

Jan. 31, 2015

City officials confirm that senior members of Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration will receive raises of about 6 percent over next three years. MORE

Jan. 15, 2015

Pres Obama will ask Congress to enact measure allowing workers across nation to earn up to seven paid sick days annually and creating $2 billion fund to assist states in paying for family leave programs; will also order federal agencies to grant their employees up to six weeks of paid parental leave. MORE

Dec. 3, 2014

Superior Court judge in Rhode Island agrees to send a union-backed lawsuit over state's sweeping 2011 public pension overhaul to a jury trial in April 2015. MORE

Dec. 1, 2014

The debate about pay for Wall Street executives who take government jobs appears to be based more on a populist shakedown than on good public policy. MORE

Nov. 22, 2014

Illinois Judge John W Belz rejects state's effort to bolster its public pension system; rules that pension overhaul enacted in December 2013 violated clause in State Constitution. MORE

Nov. 16, 2014

Records and interviews show federal government has significantly expanded undercover operations, with officers from at least 40 agencies taking on false identities to ferret out wrongdoing and document suspicious activity; broadened scope of undercover work outside traditional domain of law enforcement raises concerns about civil liberties abuses and entrapment, and has also resulted in some compromised investigations. MORE

Nov. 11, 2014

While Detroit’s plan to exit bankruptcy has been praised, its pension system relies on some of the same assumptions that got it into trouble in the first place. MORE

Oct. 28, 2014

The suit contends that Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company used faulty methods that “doomed the plan to financial ruin.” MORE

Oct. 19, 2014

Gretchen Morgenson Fair Game column observes that public pension funds nationwide have invested heavily in private equity buyout funds, agreeing to dangerous codes of silence about terms; examines case in which the Carlyle Group shifted burden of $115 million settlement to investors of one such fund, including state and city employees in several states; warns that information related to this new obligation was effectively unavailable to employees. MORE

Oct. 3, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Ann Hagedorn questions government vetting of private security contractors that are being employed by increasing number of agencies; says revelation that Pres Obama rode in elevator with a contractor who was carrying a gun and had an arrest record should shake all Americans from complacency; calls for system of checks and balances in government contracting that reflects new age of private security. MORE

Sep. 13, 2014

Retired New York City police officer John Minerva, accused as ringleader in huge scheme to defraud Social Security Administration, pleads guilty in return for a reduced sentence; he agrees to testify against former colleagues. MORE

Aug. 13, 2014

Obama administration rolls back part of its ban on lobbyists serving in government, narrowing one of the president’s signature policies in the face of a legal challenge. MORE

Aug. 12, 2014

Bryan Jeffries, chief of Arizona's firefighters' association, proposes that his members and the state's police officers volunteer in order to help save their underfunded retirement plan and bail out towns and cities that are struggling to keep up with their mandated contributions; believes that emergency workers have a special obligation to protect the public not only from physical peril, but also from financial ruin. MORE

Jul. 23, 2014

Editorial contends that no one wins in Detroit's bankruptcy plan; notes that city's municipal retirees have approved restructuring blueprint that will cut their promised pension payouts significantly, but other creditors rejected blueprint, including hedge funds and bond insurers that hold or back billions of dollars in municipal debt; holds that painful bankruptcy process is moving forward, but outcome is uncertain. MORE

Jul. 22, 2014

Detroit's retirees vote to lower their expected pension benefits, crucial step in city's plan to emerge from bankruptcy before end of 2014; result could provide a complicated model for future of troubled, underfunded public-sector pensions in other cities. MORE

Jul. 12, 2014

Creditors, including city workers and retirees, submit their final votes on Detroit's plan to emerge from bankruptcy; some of the city’s 32,000 retirees and workers say that while they oppose cuts to their promised benefits, they feel that city’s proposal, along with the foundation and state money, might be best offer. MORE

Jul. 10, 2014

Thousands of city workers and retirees in Detroit face impending deadline to cast votes on city's plan to emerge from debt, plan that depends in part on cutting their pension benefits; city has taken on feel of an all-out election campaign. MORE

Jul. 4, 2014

Illinois Supreme Court sides with retired state employees who argued that health insurance coverage is constitutionally protected retirement benefit; 6-to-1 ruling reverses lower court decision that allowed state to require retirees to pay for part of their health care. MORE

Jul. 3, 2014

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and city's largest municipal union, District Council 37, announce tentative contract that raises wages by 10 percent and reduces health care costs; agreement closely resembles city's new contract with United Federation of Teachers; union represents over 100,000 city employees. MORE

Jul. 3, 2014

Op-Ed article by Prof Cynthia Estlund and Prof William E Forbath criticizes Supreme Court decision that unions cannot collect fees from public employees who do not want to join; contends ruling is bigger loss for labor than people think; asserts unions are reeling as court sided with those who seek to further weaken workers' ability to join with co-workers and bargain collectively. MORE

Jul. 1, 2014

Supreme Court deals limited blow to organized labor by ruling that some government employees do not have to pay any fees to unions representing them, but declines to strike down decades-old precedent that requires many public sector workers to pay union fees; Justice Samuel A Alito Jr concludes that there is a category of government employees who can opt out of joining a union and not be required to contribute union fees. MORE

Jun. 21, 2014

Federal government announces regulatory changes to extend wide range of marriage benefits to same-sex couples, making good on a promise by Pres Obama after Supreme Court struck down Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. MORE

Jun. 20, 2014

Supreme Court rules unanimously that First Amendment protects government employees from retaliation for giving truthful testimony that was not part of their job responsibilities; case involves Edward R Lane, former director of youth program at public community college in Alabama, who was fired after testifying in 2009 corruption trial of state legislator Suzanne Schmitz. MORE

Jun. 18, 2014

If it succeeds, the city’s cost-cutting hybrid pension plan could be a model for solving government budget crises across the country. MORE

Jun. 17, 2014

Federal Judge Sidney I Schenkier liberates Chicago from oversight intended to prevent politically motivated hirings, firings and harassment of government employees, but warns that the system is not immune from corruption and still needs to be watched to ensure that the staid past does not return; says administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel has taken proper steps to prove that it has complied with decades-old accord, known as the Shakman decrees. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Illinois Gov Pat Quinn signs legislation to help Chicago reduce pension shortfall but urges Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council not to raise property taxes for additional revenues; law would nearly eliminate the $9.4 billion shortfall by cutting benefits and increasing contribution for the city and employees. MORE

Jun. 4, 2014

Michigan Senate agrees to Gov Rick Snyder’s call for spending millions in state funds to spare the pensions of Detroit retirees from deeper cuts and to avoid the sale of artworks from the city’s museum, part of a larger bargain aimed at bringing a swift close to the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy. MORE

May. 23, 2014

Michigan State House, in series of votes that could be critical for Detroit's emergence from bankruptcy, agrees to contribute nearly $200 million in state money for deal to spare city's retirees from larger pension cuts and to avoid selling artworks from city's museum; deal passes amid mixed support. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Detroit's retired city workers react angrily to details of a plan to reduce their benefits, part of the city’s effort to find its way out of bankruptcy; 20,000 retirees must decide whether to accept pension cuts city proposes, or vote no and risk losing much more. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Michael Powell Gotham column describes New Jersey Gov Chris Christie's proposal to cut payments to state employee pension funds by $2.4 billion; notes that move would violate provisions of pension law Christie himself pushed through in 2011. MORE

May. 15, 2014

Judge Jon Belz of Sangamon County Circuit Court in Illinois issues stay on state's pension law until the court can rule on its constitutionality. MORE

May. 13, 2014

Detroit drops tens of thousands of ballots in the mail, initiating crucial stage in the city's bankruptcy case that allows retirees, employees and bondholders to cast votes on painful debt-shredding plan; vote amounts to gamble for many of the city's 32,000 pension recipients, where they either support proposed cuts or risk losing more. MORE

May. 6, 2014

Judge Steven W Rhodes signs off on document that clears the way for tens of thousands of Detroit retirees, employees and bondholders to begin receiving ballots on the city's plan for rebuilding and shrinking its debt; Detroit officials, hoping to exit bankruptcy court my mid-October, are racing to reach deals with city workers and others in effort to ease and expedite the entire process. MORE

May. 3, 2014

Leaders of Detroit Retired City Employees Association, representing nearly 8,000 municipal retirees, agree to cuts of 4.5 percent to retirees’ pension benefits, latest in settlements secured by city in its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy; cuts are smaller than city had initially proposed. MORE

Apr. 29, 2014

Supreme Court is set to decide whether First Amendment rights of Edward R Lane, former director of youth program at public community college in Alabama, were clearly established when he was fired after testifying in 2009 corruption trial of state legislator Suzanne Schmitz. MORE

Apr. 29, 2014

Detroit officials add tentative agreements with some of its unions to pacts already reached with retiree groups, pension funds and several financial creditors, moving closer to plan that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy by mid-October 2014. MORE

Apr. 26, 2014

Court-appointed committee of Detroit, Mich, retirees reaches tentative agreement with the bankrupt city on cuts to their pensions and benefits; deal adds to pacts already reached with pension fund leaders and others, and brings Detroit closer to paying back some of its overwhelming debts and emerging from bankruptcy. MORE

Apr. 22, 2014

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan ask Judge George B Daniels to impose sentences of 105 years, 80 years and up to 40 years respectively on Gerard Denault, Mark Mazer and Dmitry Aronshtein; trio, convicted in federal corruption trial, became rich in connection with New York City’s scandal-marred payroll modernization project known as CityTime. MORE

Apr. 21, 2014

Bankrupt city of San Bernardino, Calif, is looking to make deal with Calpers, powerful agency that administers state's huge pension system; at issue is $17 million in back payments and penalties city failed to make; Mayor Carey Davis hopes to reach deal to pay only fraction of what is owed, arguing city's creditors must share in bankruptcy plan. MORE

Apr. 17, 2014

Detroit's pensioners rejoice day after city scales back from large pension benefit cuts it had once been proposing; city fends off charges from critics that it simply caved into retirees in ways that could come back to haunt it, but it also shares elation of many current and former employees who for months had feared a more dire outcome. MORE

Apr. 16, 2014

Detroit's pension boards and retirees' group representing 6,500 retired police officers and firefighters say they have reached tentative agreements with the city that could serve as breakthrough in its quest to settle with its major creditors and exit bankruptcy in 2014; if completed, agreement seems certain to provide city with blueprint for paying off portions of its debt with a simpler journey through court. MORE

Apr. 12, 2014

Talks to salvage proposal to end legal fight over Rhode Island’s 2011 pension overhaul have failed and original court challenge is moving ahead; public-sector unions and retirees had sued over overhaul, and proposed settlement was an attempt to resolve the suit. MORE

Apr. 9, 2014

Illinois legislature approves plan to start easing Chicago’s crippling pension problems by requiring some city workers to pay more for their retirement benefits and by granting smaller increases in those benefits. MORE